News: Tagged as FF Massive

To help you navigate your way around our vast assortment of typographical treats, we made some changes last year to the way our library is structured and introduced three tiers: Premium, Collection and Free.

Over the coming months, we will feature our top Collection Tier FontFonts for a particular intended use and give you some handy tips and hints on how to use them. We’ve mentioned before that we are powered by music and although the summer may not be sizzling, the music festival season has certainly arrived; so first up in this series are our top ten typefaces suitable for use in music and nightlife.

Audience: Can a typeface look like music? Maybe. The right face for a violin concerto CD probably won’t be the best choice for a DJ’s website, though. When it comes to selecting type for music and nightlife, the right ones are all about appearances; legibility and even readability take a back seat.

Think of the great psychedelic posters from the ’60s or the dance club flyers from the ’90s – neither of these typically featured text that was easy to read.

The typefaces you select for music and nightlife should be geared toward the particular audience. Contemporary music needs type that feels like it was made now. ‘Corporate’-looking fonts will probably be the wrong fit.

Usage: Choose your type based on where it will be seen. Album covers, t-shirts and posters are an opportunity to create work that is illustrative and unique, while advertisements for an act’s concert appearances or for specific clubs offer less leeway

Fans will be able to pick out their favorite band from a sea of logos, but when you present information about where they will play, when tickets will be available and how much they cost, you can help the reader by listing these bits of information clearly.

Music and nightlife allow typeface combinations that would never normally go together in a corporate setting. Try to find imaginative styles for band identities, or for the venues where they will appear. Combine these with something clear and more subdued for everyday information; this stuff is less important in a visual hierarchy than the creative side, but it should still communicate what it has to.

Ecosystem: Type is just one element of the mix for music and nightlife. How does it combine with photographs, illustrations, or even simple fields of color? Words don’t have to be written with ornate letters to be decorative – big fat block letters can do the trick, depending on what other elements you mix them together with. Especially in this category of design, it is definitely OK to use all-caps text.

Although your design doesn’t have to be 100% about the type, good fonts will help strike the right tone. When you select your typefaces, think about what other design elements you will be combining them with. If imagery is a more important part of your band’s ‘identity’, take this into consideration. Sticking to one family with several weights and widths may offer enough versatility.

About our Collection Tier

Our Collection Tier FontFonts are a selection of cost effective typographical treasures offered as full-families. All packages are available in OpenType with Standard language support (with a few key exceptions) and are all affordably priced under €/$ 100 each.

BERLIN, GERMANY, December 2010 – FSI FontShop International announced the latest additions to its award-winning FontFont® typeface library.

The new FontFonts

FF Basic Gothic — Due to its popularity online, Verdana has effectively become the basic sans serif. Yet in print it tends to looks too heavy and a little unwieldy. As a response to this FontFont releases FF Basic Gothic. Influenced by the early sans serif typefaces of the 19th century and developed for today’s highest standards, it is a sans serif optimized for maximum legibility. With its functional, basic look, it is willful but pleasant at the same time. Inspired by the unique letter forms of Gill Sans and Antique Olive, designers Hannes von Döhren and Livius Dietzel searched for exceptional yet legible proportions. At the same time, the letters are stripped down to their basic forms, with precise curves and straight lines, making FF Basic Gothic extremely versatile for a multitude of applications.

Their extended weight range makes it interesting for corporate designers; TYPO Berlin 2011 already trusts on FF Basic Gothic (as well as on FF Scala). The type family performs especially well in small sizes, both in print and on the screen – thanks to the hinting experts of the FontFont Type Department.